Friday, February 13, 2009

The Storm Before the Calm

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day-The day of love, peace, harmony and friendship.

But that is no reason that today can't suck.

I am not familiar with how the calendar works (Good Lord, what do I know anything about?) but I have to imagine that this is the first time in a while that Friday the 13th has fallen the day before Valentine's Day. I don't know about you but I think that rocks. I think that you enjoy the good days a hell of a lot more when they come after a cosmically destined awful day.

Now, I don't mean to say that I am having the worst day ever (I have been awake for like 3 hours) but it is a fairly foreboding day up to this point and Planet Earth certainly does not seem to be enjoying herself.

I began my Friday the 13th by seeing The Wrestler. You will have to wait until February 19th, when the Backdrop website is launched, to hear how I felt about it but regardless of whether it sucked or rocked, it was an undeniable downer. So after my brief engagement with Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke, I came back to my room to stroll the Interwebs like I always do. And it turns out I missed quite a bit while I slept.

After avoiding our first deadly commercial plane crash since 2006 about a month ago, America may have jinxed itself because 50 people just died in a Buffalo-area plane crash. Any unnecessary loss of life is a tragedy and it was bad enough to hear that 50 people had died in accidental fashion yesterday, but there was also this little nugget buried in the MSN story that just made things 100 times worse:

"Sue Bourque told The Buffalo News her sister, Beverly Eckert, was aboard the plane. Eckert is the widow of Sean Rooney, who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Bourque said that while the family had not yet received official confirmation of her sister's fate, the reality was settling in. "We know she was on that plane," she told the newspaper, "and now she's with him."

God damn it.

Seriously, Friday the 13th? Killing 50 East Costers wasn't enough; you had to drag 9/11 victims into this as well? I know Friday the 13th has to suck but that was just a little much for my tastes.

There is no transition from 50 dead human beings to my next topic that isn't horribly awkward and insensitive, so I am going to just dive in.

Conan O'Brien only has 7 episodes of Late Nite left before he leaves for The Tonight Show. Wow, what a gut punch. When they announced that he was moving 4 years ago, 2009 seemed so far in the future that it would never come. But it has and my darling Conan will be leaving me soon. Look, I know he will be on the same network and I know that 11:30 will probably make it easier to watch him but I just can't get over the fact that he is moving to L.A. The fact that Conan was in the Big Apple gave me some bizarre hope that we could cross paths one day and become best friends. Now the chances of that have slimmed considerably. I am going to miss being only 440 miles away from him.

Friday the 13th only have 11 more hours to wreak havoc upon our souls. Then we will fall into the sweet and soft embrace of Valentine's Day and be treated to happy thoughts and bunny rabbits.